Our First Cruise - Page Text Content

1: BJ and Karalee left Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) Airport around 9:00 am on Monday morning and ended up at Los Angeles (LAX) around 10:00 am Pacific Time. We expected a lot more difficulties catching a shuttle to Long Beach where the Port was but ended up riding a shuttle in the opposite direction of LA traffic and arrived at the Port just before 11:00 am. They began letting us board the ship early but told us we wouldn't be able to enter our stateroom until 3:00 pm. They old us to gather on the Pool Deck and enjoy the lunch buffet. It was amazing. It was cool weather with overcast and a slight constant breeze.

2: LONG BEACH, CA

5: When booking a cruise, make sure your sleeping arrangements are well planned out!

6: They required us to wear these to our muster stations. Yeah. Can you believe this? Thousands of people bulked up fitting on the sides of the ship.

7: CUTE no matter what you're wearing!

9: The horn was just as loud as you would imagine. When it blew and the smoke started billowing out we knew we were on our way. It was so exciting to actually be on our FIRST cruise. | Above, we're leaving the Port of Long Beach, CA. Below, we're nearing the island of Catalina. It was overcast and we couldn't see the fish well at all. So much for our glass bottom boat ride.

11: The water was too shallow for our ship. We had to anchor out at sea. It was so beautiful looking around. | We were so small in the little taxi boats next to our ship. | SCARY... we didn't know how it would be stepping off the ship onto the taxi boats.

12: The center picture is on our taxi boat riding in to Catalina. The others are what we saw from the walk onto the island. The streets are really narrow. Enough room for two golf carts to pass each other. The houses are stacked next to each other and the front doors are about 12 feet from the curbs. It's truly an experience.

13: Catalina Island, California | We've never been to Hawaii, but it felt like we were there. | The flowers were so beautiful. | Houses right up next to the street. | Narrow Roads!